Voler News

Everything That is Old is New Again

VClub — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:22:31 GMT

As you may know, we've recently relaunched Voler.com, combining both the Custom and Retail sides of Voler into one cohesive website. The last piece was launching of our new Community/News section of the site, Connect. With this new site, we make it even easier for enthusiasts to connect and share ideas and stories from the cycling world. So head on over today and get involved.

UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Officially Names 2011 European and U.S. Team Directors

VClub — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:00:00 GMT

January 12, 2011

Oakland, CA - In continuing its preparation toward its first season as a Pro Continental squad, the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team officially announced today that it has named Eric Greene as its U.S. Team Director and Vittorio Algeri as its European Team Director. Both individuals will report to Mike Tamayo, the Team's General Manager and Directeur Sportiff.

When asked about the decision to tap Algeri and Greene, Tamayo stated, "Our team owners at Momentum Sports Group [Thierry Attias, President and Greg Raifman, CEO] have done an outstanding job putting us in a position to build on MSG's eight (8) years of successful programs by signing some of cycling's top riders and assembling an A-list staff. With our expanded international race calendar this year, leadership will become even more critical to our future success." Tamayo continued, "In this regard, we are confident that Vittorio and Eric are the right individuals to guide our racing efforts both at home in the U.S. and internationally."

Algeri, who is currently en route from Italy to Spain, will represent the Team at this week's 2011 Vuelta a Espana Route Presentation as part of his first major task in his new capacity. "I am excited about this opportunity and eager for the season to get underway," Algeri said. "Europe will challenge us, but this is a great team to work with and I expect this year to be most successful."

Greene will face his first test on the road later this month in Malaysia as he directs the Team's six-man roster, which is headed to the 16th Annual Tour de Langkawi. "I have enjoyed working with MSG for the past five (5) years and I am honored to serve as the U.S. Team Director of the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team," he said. "Mike has a great racing vision for us and Vittorio and I are looking forward to executing against that vision this season."

Enthusiastic about the direction his team is headed, MSG President Thierry Attias, said of the Team's two newest appointments, "Our 2011 race calendar covers four continents and we have put many of the elements in place to give us the best chance to be successful. Combined with the strength, depth and capacity this team possesses, we firmly expect Vittorio and Eric will work with Mike to ensure we are very competitive in Europe and victorious domestically."

Technorati tags: UnitedHealthcare, Cycling News

Improving Endurance on Hills [Training Tip]

VClub — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:44:57 GMT

TRAINING CORNER

We’ve teamed up with Marilyn Trout, certified USA Cycling Elite Coach to answer Voler Newsletter List members’ training questions. You can view her coach profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/mountainpedalscoaching80903 Send your cycling inquiries to Marilyn, and for a limited time, if yours is selected to be answered in our Training column, Voler will send you a $20 gift certificate that can be used towards any purchase from the Voler Store at http://www.voler.com. To submit your inquiry, e-mail her at trout_mic@msn.com, and type “Voler Training Question” in the subject line of the e-mail.

Voler Newsletter member Peter Taylor is our 62nd winner of a $20 Voler Store gift certificate! His training question that follows was answered by Peg Labiuk (nee Peggy Maass), a colleague of Marilyn Trout, and a certified NCCP level 3 coach with a career in international road and track racing. She is a World Championship medalist, World Record holder, U.S. Olympic Team member, former British national team coach and Kreb's Cycle co-founder (British Columbia, Canada).

Improving Endurance on Hills

Dear Coach,

Last semester, I rode to school, (10 miles) took a swim class (usually, less than 700 yards), took a weight training class, (limited to the upper body), and rode home (minimum of 10 miles with one half mile climb a mile from home). I did this twice a week, on Monday and Wednesday. This was the first consistent riding I’ve done in about six or seven years.

After twenty or so days like this, I could never “attack” the aforementioned hill. Actually, my body felt like it was the hill that attacked me! The best I could do is survive it, pedaling in the saddle, at no more than 4 m

Next semester I plan on riding to school for two swim classes and the weight training class. Between the two swim classes, I hope to swim at least 1000 yards, then lift weights and take the long way home (10 to 25 miles), again, twice a week. I'll get in other riding when I can, but it won't be on a consistent basis.

I'm doing all of this for cardio-vascular fitness, to lose weight, AND to finish every century that I enter this coming spring and summer. Because there’s no shortage of hills here in northern California, I need to better at attacking hills in preparation for the April start of the season. What can I do in the next four months to improve my endurance on the hills so that I can ride 100 miles in a day? (Mounting a large O2 tank on my bike may be out of the question!)

By the way, I’m 55 years old and have no health issues. I’m 6’ 2” and weigh 226 pounds (and trying to lose the extra 26 pounds). I ride a Madone 5.2.

Thanks in your advance for your input.

Peter Taylor
Oakland, CA

Dear Peter,

To me there are two parts to your query. First, last year's training and why you began to go “slow mo” uphill. Then, what you could do differently this year. Regarding last year's training, you went at it pretty hard after a life cycle layoff. Even though it was exercising just two days a week, it's predictable that you would hit the wall. 99% of athletes I have coached need rest breaks every 3-5 weeks. They hate the idea at first, but soon feel the benefit of taking a week off. It's time to let your body recover, rebuild, and rebound stronger. You needed rest, not more training. On top of that, you did multi workout days that would drain much younger athletes. How was your nutrition between workouts?

For 2011, you are off to a good start already. You have set goals - finishing every Century Ride you enter and getting better at hills. You have asked for help and are on the verge of planning ahead - two of the most important things you can do. Last year your training showed that you are a good fit for a peaking pattern. You tired after 3 weeks - right on schedule. Now, if you plan for that, you can insert rest breaks to help you avoid overtraining and set yourself up for outstanding performances when you want. The trick is to work backwards on your calendar, from the date of the Century you want to peak for. Peter, you indicated that the first one, April 11th, is the one you would like to peak for. Because it is the first of 7 and you are still on the comeback trail, I recommend you set up the peak for the May 1 Century to manage your energy over the season. So, working backwards from May 1, your mid-week training, long rides/Century Rides, and rest pattern could look like this:

January 17-23 - 5 day rest break
24-30 - regular training plus weekend 20 mile ride

Jan 31- Feb 6 - regular training plus weekend 25 mile ride
7-13 - practice peak - try out the pattern in the peak week below
14-20 - rest week
21-27 - rest/easy week

Feb 28-Mar 6 - regular training plus weekend 25 mile ride
7-13 - regular training plus weekend 35 mile ride
14-20 - regular training plus weekend 50 mile ride
21-27 - regular training, no extra rides
28 - April 3 - regular training and Primavera Century Ride April 2

April 4-10 - rest week: 5 days in a row off
11-17 - regular training and Tierra Bella Century Ride April 16 or Diablo Century Ride April 17
18-24 - regular training and 85 mile weekend ride, preferably on course

April 25-May 1 Peak Week: rest 3 days, long easy Friday, short hard Saturday, Peak Sunday for Grizzly Peak Century Ride

May 2-8 - rest week
9-15 - easy week and Care Classic Century Ride May 14
16-22 - regular training plus weekend ride 50 miles
23-29 - regular training plus weekend ride 70 miles

May 30- June 5 - regular training plus weekend ride 85 miles
6-12 - rest week and Sequoia Century June 11
13-20 - regular training plus weekend ride <50 miles
21-27 - regular training plus weekend ride >50 miles

June 28-July 4 - regular training plus weekend ride 75 miles
5-11 - regular training plus weekend ride 100 miles
12-18 - regular training plus weekend ride 85 miles
19-25 - 5 day rest break
26-Aug 1 - regular training plus weekend ride 90 miles

August 2-7 - peak week ending with Aug 6 Marin Century Ride

Perhaps school ends in June and you can focus on cycling only. It would be great if you could do some group rides instead of your swim lessons and weight training. Your cycling is your most important preparation, especially the long weekend rides. You can work on your hills during your commutes. This should help you improve without overtraining and let you try out peaking!

Cheers,
Coach Peg

Red Light, Green Light : Everyday Example of Anaerobic Work [Training Tip]

VClub — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:30:16 GMT

TRAINING CORNER

We've teamed up with Marilyn Trout, certified USA Cycling Elite Coach to answer Voler E-Mail List members' training questions. You can view her coach profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mountainpedalscoaching80903 Send your cycling inquiries to Marilyn, and for a limited time, if yours is selected to be answered in our Training Tips column, Voler will send you a $20 gift certificate that can be used towards any purchase from the Voler Store. To submit your inquiry, e-mail her at trout_mic@msn.com, and type "Voler Training Question" in the subject line of the e-mail

Voler E-Mail List member Barbara Belli is our 61st winner of a $20 Voler gift certificate! Her training question that follows was answered by Peg Labiuk (nee Peggy Maass), a colleague of Marilyn Trout, and a certified NCCP level 3 coach with a career in international road and track racing. She is a World Championship medalist, World Record holder, U.S. Olympic Team member, former British national team coach and Kreb's Cycle co-founder (British Columbia, Canada).

Red Light, Green Light : Everyday Example of Anaerobic Wor

Hi Coach,

Why does it seem easier to maintain a consistent high level of intensity (for example a 10 min climb at VO2 max HR ) than pushing hard along a street to achieve VO2max HR, only to hit a red light, and then having to repeat the process all over again?

I hope that question makes sense!

Many thanks,
Barbara

Dear Barbara,

The harder effort you perceive when accelerating multiple times vs. steady state is indeed real. With the multiple accelerations you are producing more lactic acid in a shorter time. That’s likely what makes you feel the hurt more.

Barbara, you are currently using heart rate to measure these two very different efforts. The steady state seated climb is aerobic, below your anaerobic threshold. The traffic intervals are flat accelerations that are closer to anaerobic efforts. Remember “anaerobic” means working without oxygen, so watching your heart rate works better for the aerobic effort than a muscle, not cardio-based workout. This is exactly where power meters are favored for monitoring workouts over HR monitors. There is lag time until heart rate increases. With power output, the effort displayed is of the immediate work produced. Take a look at the graphs below, found on the SRM website. You can see the green line representing power in watts. The line is very spiky, looking like the traffic light accelerations would, about a minute effort then resting for about 30 seconds repeatedly. The corresponding red line shows the Heart Rate gradually increasing, as a more smooth line. You’d get a similar HR line from your 10 minute climb. However, if you added up the cumulative wattage needed to create those HR responses, the short spiky intervals total would be mountainous compared to your 10 min. climb. That means that calories burned would be higher too. There is the mental side of things too. It may be easier for you to sustain effort than get up out of the saddle and accelerate all those times.

I like the visual depiction of rides you get with power meter graphs. If you compare your body positions on the bike you can see the differences too: in traffic you are going from a full, foot down stop to out of the saddle sprinting back up to speed. You use your arms more and sway the bike as you stomp on the pedals. When climbing steady state you are seated and arms, body, and bike movements are subdued. Can you see the energy consumption differences? You may also be better trained at the steady state climbs so your traffic light intervals feel harder by comparison.

Another application for the power meter is to give immediate feedback so you know if you are starting a steady state effort too fast. If you did a hard standing start and went over your lactate threshold, you’d pay with your HR peaking more quickly and your precious reserves of muscle glycogen being spent too soon in a time trial. As with any tool, it is best when the information is combined, like having power and heart rate readouts together. Then you can monitor increases in power at the same heart rate. This would manifest as pedaling a harder gear or increased cadence, netting a faster speed as shown in the second SRM graph. Most cyclists are able to monitor speed and cadence, and should also know what gear they are using. So while it’s not necessary to have a power meter, your example highlights the instances when you are comparing apples to oranges, aerobic to anaerobic, and need another method to monitor.

Ride on,
Coach Peg

Team TIBCO/To the Top: We start 2011 with a last look back at 2010, and look ahead to this year

VClub — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 08:00:00 GMT

January 01, 2011

Pescadero, CA – Is it really 2011 already? The past year was another incredible one for Team TIBCO/To the Top: our first trip to Europe, great results at home and abroad, and a new Juniors team that already posted its first victory.

In this issue of our Team newsletter, we take a look back at all the Team’s accomplishments of 2010, including the emergence of rising stars Samantha Schneider and Megan Guarnier, we celebrate the successful inaugural season of Team TIBCO, our Bay-area amateur squad, and welcome our new Junior team onto the scene.

We also pay tribute to retiring star Brooke Miller, and conclude things with a Q&A with Team Founder Linda Jackson, offering a peek at what’s to come for 2011. We’re all extremely excited to get 2011 rolling, with a slew of new riders, including three top Canadians, and key new sponsors, including Specialized, Reynolds and Maxxis, plus energy sources FRS and Dr. Vie Superfoods.

Once again, we have the top level of women’s professional racing in our sights, with an eye also focused on London in 2012. As always, thank you all for your past and future support. We cannot do this without you.

To view the Team TIBCO/To the Top Newsletter click below:

http://www.teamtibco.com/pdf/2010_YearReview.pdf

Technorati tags: TIBCO, Cycling News

Good Vehicle to Transport Bikes [Training Tip]

VClub — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:19:11 GMT

TRAINING CORNER

E-mail list member Larry Leffert is our 60th winner of a $20 Voler Store gift certificate! His question follows…

Good Vehicle to Transport Bikes

Hi Coach,

Good friends are looking for vehicle to transport their bikes in. They have 2 expensive bikes and they would rather put them inside a vehicle than outside. They also don't want to take both wheels to make the bike fit. Right now they have a PT Cruiser. Do you have any suggestions of a vehicle that would work? Also looking for something with good gas mileage. No trucks please. If you don't have any ideas, please give me a suggestion of where to check for this information.

Larry

Larry,

Your friends have posed a most interesting question. I have transported my bikes in most every kind of vehicle and, most definitely, some have been better than others. The inconvenient ones have been used out of necessity in times of need. These days the car's back hatch makes life easier so very rarely do both wheels have to come off. Leaving the back wheel on and turning the handlebars, the bike can be placed behind the back seat with the second bike the opposite way and still get wheels and bags in after them. With the bars turned and a towel or sponge covers on the tubes, any scratching will be avoided. If they prefer to have the bikes go in "head first", they can get some old bike mounts for the forks, attach them to a small board, place that where one seat folds down and mount the bike onto that.

As far as the car goes, I think that depends on personal preference as to the size that they are comfortable with. Certainly a truck is not needed. A car as small as a Subaru Outback could work. I'm familiar with size dimensions of the Subaru Legacy and Ford Escape. Both work just fine, so if you are looking for good gas mileage, I think if you move in the direction of a hybrid, the bikes, cyclists and your wallet would be happy.

Marilyn

UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team will send six of its top riders to Argentina for the 2011 Tour de San Luis

VClub — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:00:00 GMT

DECEMBER 23, 2010

Oakland, CA - The UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team announced today that it will send a fierce six-man squad to Argentina to compete in the Fourth Annual Tour de San Luis, January 18-24, 2011. Scheduled to race for the Team in Argentina's largest stage race are returning veterans Rory Sutherland and Andrew Pinfold, who will be joined by new UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling teammates, Christian Meier, Charly Wegelius, Davide Frattini, and Scott Zwizanski.

Set to begin January 18 and culminate January 24 in San Luis, Argentina, organizers of the seven-day stage race have promised tougher stages and more climbing in this year's edition. And UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team General Manager and Team Director, Mike Tamayo, is excited about the opportunity The Tour de San Luis presents.

"Pro Tour teams historically have attended this race and this year is no different," Tamayo said. "The organizers of the Tour de San Luis have put together a great event and we are eager to compete in it next month. Argentina also offers three of the key elements that make a race of this magnitude so great - great weather, great country and great racing."

Regarding expectations surrounding his team's performance in Argentina, Tamayo stated, "The way you start the season in January sets the tone for the year and this seven-day stage race will provide us with a good gauge of where we are at this point. San Luis has a great time trial that will test Scott Zwizanski's early season time trialing and the race overall will be a good test for all of our guys."

The UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team roster for the 2011 Tour de San Luis:
Rory Sutherland
Christian Meier
Charly Wegelius
Scott Zwizanski
Davide Frattini
Andrew Pinfold

Immediately following The Tour de San Luis, the Team will compete in the Tour of Langkawi before returning to the United States for training camp in Thousand Oaks, California, which begins February 4, 2011.

Technorati tags: UnitedHealthcare, Cycling News